Authentic voices. Remarkable stories. AOL On Originals showcase the passions that make the world a more interesting place.

Connected features the personal stories of six New Yorkers woven together into one of the most intimate series ever. This groundbreaking show changes the nature of storytelling by giving each character a camera to document their lives. The result is a unique format revealing as different as everyone appears to be, we are all universally Connected.

Wake up to your world in 2 minutes.

Jews and Money. Asian Drivers. Polish IQ. CPT… that's racist! But where do these stereotypes come from? Comedian Mike Epps explores the backstories of this humor and how history and fact often distorts into a snide – but sometimes funny – shorthand.

"INSPIRED" features celebrities, visionaries and some of the biggest newsmakers of our generation, recounting the stories behind their biggest, life-changing moments of inspiration.

In a compelling series of verite encounters, Win Win provides unique access into the minds and lives of the world’s most-celebrated entrepreneurs and athletes.

Explore what it means to be human as we rush head first into the future through the eyes, creativity, and mind of Tiffany Shlain, acclaimed filmmaker and speaker, founder of The Webby Awards, mother, constant pusher of boundaries and one of Newsweek’s “women shaping the 21st Century.”

Nicole Richie brings her unfiltered sense of humor and unique perspective to life in a new series based on her irreverent twitter feed. The show follows the outspoken celebrity as she shares her perspective on style, parenting, relationships and her journey to adulthood.

Comedy is hard, but teaching comedy to children is hilariously difficult. Kevin Nealon is giving the challenge to some world-famous comedians. As these young minds meet with comedy’s best, get ready to learn some valuable comedy lessons, and to laugh!

James Franco loves movies. He loves watching them, acting in them, directing them, and even writing them. And now, he’s going to take some of his favorite movie scenes from the most famous films of all time, and re-imagine them in ways that only James can.

The story of punk rock singer Laura Jane Grace of Against Me! who came out as a woman in 2012, and other members of the trans community whose experiences are woefully underrepresented and misunderstood in the media.

Executive produced by Zoe Saldana (who will be the subject of one episode), a celebrity travels back to their hometown to pay tribute to the one person from their past (before they were famous) who helped change their life by giving them an over-the-top, heart-felt surprise.

Enter the graceful but competitive world of ballet through the eyes of executive producer, Sarah Jessica Parker. This behind-the-scenes docudrama reveals what it takes to perform on the ultimate stage, the New York City Ballet. Catch NYCB on stage at Lincoln Center.

Park Bench is a new kind of "talking show" straight from the mind of born and bred New Yorker and host, Steve Buscemi.

(Image source: American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry ) BY STEVEN SPARKMAN ANCHOR JAMAL ANDRESS A new medical breakthrough could mark the beginning of an answer to the biggest problem in contact sports: brain injury caused by head trauma. It’s called chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, and it’s become the big topic surrounding the NFL, fighting and other contact sports. Essentially, CTE is the chronic brain damage that results from a career full of blunt force traumas to the head, and it can cause cognitive impairments, memory loss, aggressive behavior and depression. Images via Seattle Times , Denver Post , Video via ESPN ) Now for the first time, scientists at UCLA believe they’ve seen signs of CTE in living retired NFL players. ( Video via KDKA ) Before now, the only way to diagnose CTE was to examine a person’s brain after they had died. But if researchers are able to study the brains of living people and watch the disease develop, they may be able to eventually find a cure. The telltale sign of CTE is the buildup of a protein called tau. In the sports world, it’s a word commonly linked to tragedy. ( Images via Boston University ) “Now, if tau sounds familiar, that’s because it’s been found in the brains of several former NFL players: Dave Duerson, Ray Easterling, Junior Seau … who were diagnosed with CTE.” ( Video via CNN ) The UCLA scientists were able to look for tau using the same techniques used to look for Alzheimer’s: injecting people with a radioactive marker and looking for it on a PET scan. And they found it: higher-than-normal tau in all five former NFL players in the initial study. Such a dramatic result could be the start of big changes in contact sports. ( Via UCLA ) Last year, when the study was just getting underway, an article for Deadspin explored the possibilities of a reliable tau test — yearly brain scans, new avenues for research — all with the same goal: early detection, so players know when to stop. That’s still a long way off, though. There are still problems, like the small size of the study or the fact that the test can’t tell the difference between tau and the plaques that cause Alzheimer’s. Plus according to the New York Times , we just don’t know enough about CTE yet. “It may take years and perhaps decades for doctors to determine how much of a role head hits and brain trauma have in patients with C.T.E., as opposed to one’s genetic predisposition and other health maladies like heart disease. But the study is a first step...”

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